With a universal spirit, autumn dance festivalnearly 20 years old, continues to pack homes in New York City Center, and more than two years of the pandemic have had no noticeable impact on its popularity.
On opening night last Wednesday, the line to enter the theater meandered a block from 55th Avenue to 7th Avenue. That enthusiasm was also evident indoors, with Program 1 featuring French Compagnie Hervekoubi, his teenage duo from the Bavarian State Ballet and Gibney and his company from New York City.
Ideally, Fall for Dance is a place of happy discovery, a place where viewers are introduced to things they’ve never seen before and want to find again. It was her second time for me to offer this kind of encounter out of his two sample platter programs earlier this year. music from soul, a tap dance and live music company led by choreographer and composer team Leonardo Sandoval and Gregory Richardson. Original, true to themselves, unforced, crowd-pleasing, their ‘I didn’t stay was the best fall for dance.
With the colorful ensemble already in motion, the curtain rose like it was in the middle of a celebration, singing and processing across the stage. Various roles soon emerged as the group members played different instruments and continued to dance center stage, but this sense of togetherness and collective joy permeated the entire production.
Brazilian-born New York City-based Sandoval describes Music from the Soul on his website, citing jazz, samba, and house, as “a root of the Afro diaspora of tap dancing and a broader lineage of black dance and music. ‘ is being explored. Passinho (Brazilian funk). In “I Didn’t Stay”, these influences intertwine seamlessly, demonstrating how easily an artist can work with a broad palette.
Precise a cappella tapping and body percussion sections (some performers in tap shoes, others in sneakers) punctuated by playful hip-shaking interludes punctuated by barefoot samba inflections. flow into the dance. Sandoval himself, with his skinny frame and friendly presence, handles lithe, flowing tap solos. Then, in a stunning duet with Gisele Silva, they beat as the foundation for further rhythmic layers. Structurally loose, the piece is captivating with its rawness and relaxed energy, making the performers like friends at the party.
In Fall for Dance, entertaining is sometimes more important than anything else. Aszure Barton’s 2009 “Busk” features her thirteen members of her Ailey Company forming a sort of monastic chorus dressed in black (a blazer over a hoodie over her pants). This was the case when it was lavishly danced by While visually stimulating and full of technical feats, the piece’s deeper motivations remain as opaque as its costumes. It’s a hyper-focused solo ride under a disco ball, and impulses ripple through her body with laser-like clarity and speed.
Sandwiched between two ensemble numbers in Program 2 was a distinctive whisper of the duet “No Nonsense” by Pam Tannowitz for longtime Tanowitz dancer Melissa Toogood and American Ballet Theatre’s Herman Cornejo . Designed by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, matching outfits of fuzzy pink shirts and shorts in her pants helped bring these two stars of his life to life, as did Tanowitz’s choreographic humanity. rice field.
Intimate gestures—one dancer’s foot grazing the other’s calf—caught as much attention as Toogood’s torso bends or Cornejo’s articulate leaps. sat on the floor and provided the music, progressing from the fragmentary intonation of Meredith Monk’s “Walking Song” to Peter Surstatt’s “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” . The transition from breathy syllables to songs with lyrics was awkward at first and later seemed to reflect the relationship of the dancers.Tentative and boldly trusting.
Program 1 had fewer surprises. In an excerpt from “Boys Don’t Cry” (2018), Compagnie Hervé Koubi’s bound men are asked to behave in typically masculine ways, such as playing sports, fighting, and not crying. I told the story of my childhood when I was pressured by They combined these a little haphazardly with their signature acrobatic (shirtless) dance moves, a blend of styles such as Blake and Capoeira.
On a display my date aptly called “Instagram IRL,” Margarita Fernandez When Antonio Casarinho — A teenage dancer with the Bavarian State Ballet, who has a combined Instagram following of nearly 50,000 — nailed every step of the ‘pirate’ pas de deux. Impeccable yet mechanical, they danced as if they were posing for the cameras and the watchful eyes of the contest judges – no surprise given their training thus far. has plenty of time to grow.
The Gibney Company closed Program 1 with the North American premiere of “Bliss” by Swedish choreographer Johan Inger. In this sweeping ensemble piece for 13 dancers, the continuity of the dance mirrors that of Keith Jarrett’s Jazz Her Piano soundtrack. It equates to a lot of nice material, beautifully presented, without any dynamism. Why are these people dancing together? For what? With some productions, like Music from the Sole’s, it never matters.
fall for dance
In New York City Center until October 2nd. nycitycenter.org.